LAS VEGAS – Saint Mary's Baseball had a pair of two-run leads slip away from them on Tuesday night, as they lost to UNLV 9-7 with some defensive miscues in the bottom of the ninth.
 
The Gaels struck quickly when Gavin Napier took a four-pitch walk, before Christian Almanza belted the next pitch over the right field fence for his ninth home run of the season and a 2-0 SMC lead just two batters in.
 
The Hustling Rebels answered in the bottom of the first when they strung three singles together with two outs to tie it at 2-2. They would get another in the third after a two-out single, a stolen base, and a base hit to center to make it 3-2.
 
UNLV would get a run in the fourth and fifth on RBI singles as well, and were up 5-2 going into the sixth. But SMC's offense would come to life, after Coleman Schmidt doubled and Brian Duroff walked.
 
Dalton Mashore would double home Schmidt to make it 5-3, and Duroff would score on a wild pitch to cut it to one at 5-4. A Connor "Bear" Harrison RBI ground out scored Mashore, and in one inning the Gaels had tied it up at 5-5.
 
In the eighth, Schmidt and Duroff started the inning with back-to-back singles, followed by a Mashore walk. Chris Esquivel reached on a fielder's choice to score Schmidt and a throwing error by the second baseman allowed Tanner Griffith to score to put SMC up 7-5.
 
Preston Howey came in for Ryan Wiltse, who held the Rebels to one run in his three innings of work. Howey worked a scoreless eighth, before trouble brewed in the ninth. The first two UNLV batters reached on singles, before Howey struck out the next batter.
 
A ground ball to short could have ended the game with a double play, but an error at short by Anthony Pomilia allowed the game to continue and load the bases. Another misplay at short allowed a run to score before a base hit up the middle tied it at 7-7.
 
It seemed Pomilia would have redemption to at least force the game to extras as made a good play with the infield in and made an accurate throw to home for the first out. Harrison tried to complete the double play but his throw to first was too high and sailed into right field allowing the go-ahead run to scoring and giving UNLV the walk-off, 8-7 win.
 
UP NEXT
Game two of the series is set for 2:05 p.m. in Las Vegas.
 
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